Rubbing all the green "fluff" off of a peacock feather...you end up with a shiny, flat, dark strip that works well for making mayfly bodies...some use a pencil eraser, I use one side of one of my duller pair of scissors...so take a peacock feather and strip it...

1st and probably better: Take a piece od peacock and lay it on your desk/tying area (on a sheet of paper makes for easier clean up). Pinning the peacock down with your fingers, use a pencil eraser and run the feather against the grain removing the fuzzy part of teh feather leaving the quill. Most of the time all of the fuzzy part doesn't come off. To get the rest, turn the feather over and repeat the eraser thing. The first few times you try this the quill might break. You'll learn quick how much pressure you can put on the feather with your fingers. A lot of the time the quill is just weak.

2nd: buy prestripped peacock. This is usually brittle and breaks a lot. Sometimes soaking for atleast an hour helps.

Laquering is using head cement or fingernail polish to strengthen the quill because it is delicate.

Laquering is using head cement or fingernail polish to strengthen the quill because it is delicate.

Using "flex-i-ment" (a flexible head cement) works well for this as well as the backs of quills you may use for wings as it makes them more flexible and more durable. I usually coat a whole feather before I ever cut the first wing from it.

MKern wrote:Maurice,Does the bleach mixture affect the color of the quill?

No but you have to be careful with how long you leave it in. Test the solution by taking one strand and dunking it over and over again until it is clean before putting alot of material in. Get an idea of how long it takes and then you cna just leave a few strands in for that long.

Soaking them in water softens them up as well making them less britle when wraping.

Personally I just strip it with my fingernails going against the grain. Hold the tip and stroke your fingernails toward the base.

Posted on: 2008/1/20 22:50

_________________Don't hit me with them negative waves so early in the morning. Think the bridge will be there and it will be there. It's a mother, beautiful bridge, and it's gonna be there. Ok?

after dipping in clorox, use a 50/50 of water and baking soda, it will stop the bleaching process. after they dry, they can be dyed to any shade...also you can add some hand cream to keep them from getting brittle

I gave up tying with stripped peacock quill for bodies years ago.It's a pain in the a$$ to tie with IMO, and isn't very durable.Usually, after catching a few fish on them , they unraveled.I now use gray dubbing for all those flies with gray bodies, and they work just as well in my experience